Former Trenton Marriott's artwork to be appraised, sold

TRENTON — A Picasso painting may be hanging on the walls of the capital city’s struggling hotel.

But no member of the Lafayette Yard Community Development Corporation, which owns the former Trenton Marriott, would know otherwise.

To find out what it owns, the board agreed Tuesday to get an appraisal done before the hotel is sold at auction on Nov. 25.

“We need to know the value of the artwork that’s here,” LYCDC Chairwoman Joyce Kersey said after the meeting, noting no inventory or appraisal has ever been taken. “We have a lot of original art.”

Most of the artwork was produced by local artists and the hotel paid for the collection, Kersey said.

As the Lafayette Yard Hotel & Conference Center navigates through bankruptcy to sale, the hotel board is allowed to sell the artwork separately from the auction.

Kersey said reproductions valued below $1,000 would be included with the hotel sale.

On Tuesday, the board voted to enter into a contract with Philadelphia-based October Gallery to perform the appraisal.

The art company will charge $350 an hour to take an inventory of the artwork in each room, $8,000 for an appraisal report, and $6,500 to officiate an auction, plus travel costs negotiated from $350 an hour to $200 an hour.

Kersey said the work could possibly cost $30,000, which would be taken from the $2 million loaned to the LYCDC during the bankruptcy process. The loan, which allows the hotel to keep its doors open until a new owner is in place, is guaranteed by the sale.

So far, there has been one bid submitted to purchase the hotel for $5.5 million, Kersey said.

Before the bankruptcy filing, the 197-room hotelwas hobbled with approximately $30 million in debt, including a $13.375 million city bond, a combined $9 million in state loans and more than $7.3 million owed in a note to the Trenton Parking Authority.

The public auction is scheduled to take place at the hotel, 1 W. Lafayette St., on Nov. 25 at 10 a.m.

LYCDC Board attorney Gregory Johnson said the transition date to transfer the property to the new owners is Dec. 11.

The auction date for the artwork has yet to be set.

It is unknown if indicted Mayor Tony F. Mack’s picture hanging in the hotel lobby will be included in the sale.